Ninja Run Cycle

[SurfGod69a]

Hey that looks pretty good but maybe to give it less stiffness put some bounce in the head to give a scese of weight good job.

[PudBawl]

That's a nice animation you have going there. I agree that the front view is a little strange, I think it is do (at least in part) because his knees aim so far off to the side, such as on frames 3 and 10. That is the kind of stylized cycle attribute I would expect to see on a goofy cartoon character from Looney Toons, or something similar.

I also noticed something in the side view. At frame 9 (and the appropriate repeating frames) his arm comes very close to being fully extended which gives an ackward motion, when running the arms should be pulled up tighter.

[jbo]

it's a good run cycle, but it doesn't seem gracefull enough for a ninja.

[mehdianim]

Yes you need to be clear about the character you want to animate. A ninja's main characteristics are speed and stealth. That means he would have very fast movements with as little Air friction as possible to reduce noise and environmental disturbance. so he should be aerodynamic from the front. His knees sticking out so far make for too much air resistance.
Same with his arms. That is why many animations have ninjas running with little if any arm movement and the arms are positioned along the body or somehow where they allow for good airflow and minimal friction. His speed should also be slightly augmented. Put some fake floor with primitives and slide the background as one solid object varying the speed till you get something you think looks right. Then adjust your character's animation to match the speed.
Not a rule to making run cycles but it's a fun excercise: start with the overall feel you want then adjust your character to abide by it.

[hopper2k]

thanks guys. i'll keep things these things in mind when i get back to it. i'm actually working on a bunch of small animations right now. so it might be a little while before i post another update on this.

[Dichotomy]

I think your run cycle is darn nice. I do think that one thing in the front view, is how far his feet angle out when he is running, kind of a reverse pigeon toe. When you run, your feet are usually point forward, if not a liitle inward. I think it just makes his run look a little awkward.

[Arcon]

agree totally with jbo RE the graceful aspect.

i think there's a bit too much 'bounciness' to the head, eg. a ninja kinda reminds me of a sleek cat which trys to keeps its head level as it runs, in fact even olympic hurdlers do this as they go over jumps. the character's swinging his upper body quite a bit and the arms are extending quite far, which i suppose you can get away with for stylized animation but it just doesn't look like a ninja trait.

i do like that only his toes/balls of the feet are touching the ground, for running its more realistic than a complete foot-fall.

[gunslingerblack]

that's a pretty good runcycle, for someone who's running a marathon. if your concerned with realism at all, a ninja would run something like this. he would look as if he was in a controlled fall, with his body tilted forward and his head tilted upwards, eyes looking at the trees to find a path ( you would be surprised what you can see) his feet, wouldn't look as if they were pushing as much as they were taking swift short steps to keep from falling over (the shortness of the steps also helps recover from tripping or stumbling) one arm would be down (possibly at his side) while the other arm would be out with the body slightly turned ( here you can use the typical arm bent across the body out in front anime style, otherwise it would be sticking straight out with the hand put together like a "karate chop" hand) that's basically it, ninjas dont run like they're crosstraining i'll tell u that much. if you need any visual reference i suggest you take my description and film urself imitating it as close as possible. for more official reference i suggest picking up a video by masaaki hatsumi. (he is the current grandmaster of ninjutsu)

[Jeroen]

The animation looks great.

I've got a question for the fabric in on his waist. Is that a cloth or just some polygons with a rig in it that you have animated?

[hopper2k]

I've got a question for the fabric in on his waist. Is that a cloth or just some polygons with a rig in it that you have animated?

it's polygons with a rig that i animated.

thanks everyone. i've gotten more replies than i wanted with this, haha. no one has to critique this one anymore, i've gotten some great feedback here that will help me with it in the future. i don't plan on updating it anytime soon though, because i'm caught up with other things at the moment. thanks again!

but yeah, for when i get another shot at this, i DEFINETELY need to have my "character" in mind, like being one with my ninja self, and yeah, i'll do my research! this version here was done pretty quickly, and it shows! i never scrap with my animation work, i just did this one morning to see how quickly i could do a run cycle, and to play with this ninja guy i downloaded of kiel figgins' site ( www.3dfiggins.com (http://www.3dfiggins.com) ). i promise not to post work with no thought into it again, haha!

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